Identifying the Influences of Colonial America on America Today
By: Kourtney Steppe

Looking back, today we as Americans can see that we have gotten several social, economical, and political attributes from the New England, MidAtlantic, and Southern Colonies.  Although they are not exactly the same, they are pretty similar.  From the New England colony, the most famous is the puritan work ethic, which today we call our american work ethic.  They believed that the harder they worked the more they looked like the chosen one by God. Today, we believe that the harder we work the more successful or better we will look to our neighbors and the public. As mentioned before, the modified version of the puritan work ethic is what we call our American work ethic today.  We also base our political decisions and reasoning just like them as well.  They were a theocracy and they based all of their decisions on their religion and all of the high authorities were religious leaders.  However, today we are a little different. We are somewhat biased towards religion in politics but politicians are not required to be religious leaders.  For example, if someone were to run for president and were atheist, they would have a very low chance at winning the campaign against someone who was under a religion. From the MidAtlantic colony, we get some of our social reasoning.  They had a very laid back religious view.  There was a freedom of religion similar to how America is today. As Americans, a majority of people are under some form of Christianity but it is not required nor forced on anyone.  The southern colony on the other hand is where we get some of our economical reasoning.  The southerners believed in slavery and hard labor.  They needed people to work in their fields and on their plantations to tend to their cash crops which were their source of income. Although today we do not practice slavery or look highly upon it, we do make money off of crops and essential items. Tied all together, we can see how colonial america did leave an impact on our society today.  Whether its economical, social, or political, colonial america did have an influence on what we know and love as the new America today.    

Sources:
United States History Text Book  By Pearson